Strikeforce: Can Marloes Coenen and Miesha Tate Change Dana White's Mind?

Strikeforce women's welterweight champion Marloes Coenen is set to fight challenger Miesha Tate July 30 at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson.

Many may scoff at this fight or just ignore it: "who cares about women's MMA!?" they would say.

However, this fight is actually quite important; it may be the most important in the history of women's MMA!

There has been a long run of exciting women's title fights dating back to Cristiane Cyborg Santos' destruction of Gina Carano. Thus, the fight between Tate and Coenen will have to live up to the high standard set by previous women fights.

If they put on a good fight, it will do more than just provide entertainment for the night.

It will earn women's MMA (WMMA) more fans and show the various haters that the women can fight and deserve respect for more than just their looks. In addition, should the fight be exciting, it will no doubt catch the attention of UFC president Dana White.

White has recently admitted at today's UFC 135 media tour when he said that a surprising amount of the UFC fanbase was female.

When asked if this meant that WMMA would soon be in the Octagon, White still maintained the same stance about there not being enough talent in each division but said he would ultimately see how things went.

Therefore, the fight between Miesha Tate and Marloes Coenen is occurring at a crucial point in the history of WMMA. If both fighters fail to perform than White's mind could forever be set on keeping women out of the Octagon.

But if they succeed and put on a contest worthy of WMMA then Dana White's eyes may well be open to the possibilities of WMMA.

While he obviously won't institute women's divisions in the UFC after one fight, it could change the way he looks at women's mixed martial arts and open the Octagon door for the ladies in the future.

Matt Saccaro is a Bleacher Report featured columnist and an avid MMA fan. For articles like the one above and for brilliant 140-character insights into MMA, follow him on twitter @mattsaccaro